#131 Juli Norris: Why Do Guests Forgive Bad Food, Not Bad Service?
#131 Juli Norris: Why Do Guests Forgive Bad Food, Not Bad Service?
Most restaurant owners think their problem is food cost, when their actual problem is that they've never built a system anyone else can run. They hire managers who show off instead of asking questions. They chase a labor percentage they only hit in busy season and panic when the slow months arrive. Juli Norris, chef, restaurateur, and consultant to the mom-and-pops most consultants won't touch, built two restaurants in one building that are busy at opposite times of year, staffed by the same cross-trained crew, on a scratch kitchen with real hiring standards and a rule about ignoring nothing.
Expect to learn:
- The labor number she targets across both concepts and the honest reason she only hits it part of the year
- How a dank basement with sewer pipes and string lights became her fine dining room, and the piece of leverage it bought her upstairs
- The single hiring filter she uses that predicts whether a manager will burn out or build
- What she does to a busy service, on purpose, when she sees her kitchen getting buried
- The consulting client who kept slicing steak the wrong way...
Links:
- Kasa Restaurant & Taphouse | Instagram: @kasataphouse
- Lorèn | Instagram: @lorenbistro
- Juli Norris on Instagram @whatachefeats
- Savoi Hospitality (Juli's consulting company) on Instagram: @savoihospitality
Service starts now.
Follow the show: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube
I talk to people in and around the service industry space. I'm looking to hear from the people I wish I could have talked to when I was coming up in bars. Said another way: I am trying to make sense of this wild, beautiful mess that can be a life working in bars, and help others that are feeling similarly confused and/or lost. Check out the Podcast Website Here and get in touch with me!
Classic Episodes You May Like:
- Doug Frost MW MS
- Jeffrey Morgenthaler
- Steve Schneider & The Best Bar in North America
- Edward Slingerland's Masterful work on Intoxication
- Andrew Hurley of Vegas.Wine
- Chris Tunstall of A Bar Above
- Tony Abou-Ganim
- Bobby "G" Gleason
As always, I’m just here taking notes, trying to figure out what it all means.
Cheers
Couldn't load pickup availability
